Thousands of supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro braved the rain that fell on Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday morning, a holiday, to openly call for the military to lead a “federal intervention” against the future government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Concentrated in front of the imposing Army headquarters palace in the center of the city, the Bolsonaristas chanted slogans asking for the urgent help of the military to save Brazil from “communism.” Bolsonaro’s measured speech two days after his defeat, in which he did not openly acknowledge the victory of his opponent, was interpreted by his supporters as a green light to continue mobilizing. Authorities have not released figures for the number of attendees.
Wilson Lopes, a businessman, was one of the protesters: “Bolsonaro did not accept defeat, he simply told the population to calm down, and asked for justice (…) He did not say ‘I lost, stay calm.’ As a leader that he is, he could not incite people to go out into the streets, but the message he sent is that he is not happy with the result”, he said. “We have come for free to demand our right, it is no longer just for Bolsonaro, it is for our country. We have come to ask for help.”
Most of those present were ordinary citizens, more white than black, and elderly. The atmosphere, despite the accumulated rage, was not violent. Some ladies prayed with their eyes closed and hands in the air while others sang the national anthem, set off firecrackers or blew trumpets: a noisy act with many banners calling for “intervention!” Others spoke of decreeing a state of siege and closing the Supreme Federal Court and the Superior Electoral Court.
Every time a soldier peeked out from the top of the palace tower to scan the environment, claps of palms. Two Military Police cars and a dozen soldiers guarded the building, although the demonstrators remained behind the fences at all times and without trying to force the security perimeter. While this was happening, the big Brazilian media did not mention these protests in their digital editions. They were more aware of the roadblocks, where the followers of the extreme right have caused road chaos since Monday.
Among those present were a handful of retired soldiers, regulars in Bolsonarist protests, who, despite petitions to the uniformed men, were in the background. Reginaldo Rodrigues, a Marine reservist sergeant, watched the protest with a mixture of pride and fear: “I have the clear impression that we are going to lose our freedom,” he assured vehemently. The specter of communism, always present in the marches of the Brazilian extreme right, returned with even more force now that Lula da Silva is already president-elect. For Rodrigues, the protesters now see the Army as their last hope.
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“These people are here waiting for what the Army says about the elections. When you enter the military career, the first thing you learn is that lying is a military crime. When they pronounce themselves we will know if the elections were a fraud or not”, he said. He was referring to the report that the Armed Forces supposedly prepared at the request of the Government on the electoral process. After the first round, in which Bolsonaro garnered better results than the polls expected, the expected report talking about fraud at the polls did not appear. The Electoral Justice pressured the Ministry of Defense to present its audit of the electronic ballot boxes, but at the moment there is no news about that report, nor of any evidence of fraud.
However, for the majority of Bolsonarists, there is no need to wait for ‘proof’ to emerge that the defeat of their president is a farce; they are convinced. “The elections were not fair. The popular demonstrations of the last year showed a support for the current president that does not coincide with the result at the polls. We have a serious suspicion that there was fraud, ”commented Marcinho França, a public official who attended the protest accompanied by the woman and his teenage son. A few meters away, a woman raised a poster to the sky in front of a huge Brazilian flag with the slogan “Armed Forces, save our country.”
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